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Topic: WW&F No. 11 - Official Work Thread (Read 164840 times)

All, Bernie Perch sent these new pictures of the just received castings for No 11's bell bracket -- which look fantastic...thanks Bernie!! I almost cropped the second picture showing Bernie's shoe, but I thought it was good for scale...so I left it in...shows how big this stuff really is!!

I would like to thank Stephen for posting the photos because my computer skills in this area are non-existant. An extra special thanks to Wayne Laepple who encouraged me to become involved in this project and who shared the cost of making the castings--an expense which I didn't care to do completely myself. We are donating this to the #11 project. Foundry costs are esculating like everything else, and there is a lot of sticker shock involved with this project.

Wayne brought the bell down here from Sheepscot after a track weekend. It was an old, tired, and rough casting. I believe it was from an EMD diesel but a perfect size for our narrow gauge. It came with a collection to the museum. Having polished several rough bells, I knew what was underneath all that crud.

We decided to do a bell and bracket early on so that it could become a recognizable part of a display featuring the construction progress of #11. Most everyone has a good idea of what a bell is all about.

Finally thank you everyone for your positive comments. They are the fuel which keeps my desire going on this project. I'm sure that everyone up there who is working on all the projects looks forward to the compliments.

Having seen the pictures of the great patterns that Bernie made, I really appreciate seeing the photos of the new bell hanger castings. It's great to find that you have a foundry that will do loose patterns and that will produce quality castings.Dave Johnson

Even though we took the patterns to the foundry "loose", and they were returned that way, there is evidence that they may have been mounted on boards. There was a $50 "one time set up fee" for each of the four patterns. Some foundries charge extra for core work.

When I sent "loose" patterns to Active Brass in Perkasie, PA. for Project 113, they mounted them on boards with all the gates, risers, etc. They were returned that way so that for the next trip, they were ready to go. Of course there was a charge for this.

Some folks may have noticed the four "feet" on the bell bracket casting. Bernie decided to add these so that the bell will be able to stand on a floor or shelf, and when it's time to mount this bell on no. 11's new boiler, the feet will be cut off. The actual base of the bracket is curved to match the radius of the boiler.

When Bernie and I went to Fairmount Foundry in Hamburg, Pa., the plant manager and shop foreman both expressed admiration for the craftsmanship and beauty of the patterns. They were quite amazed that Bernie, as an amateur, had done such a fine job. Those of you who saw the patterns for the spoked pilot wheel for no. 11 know what I'm talking about. Wait until you see the driver center pattern!

All of the above is to remind us how fortunate we are that Bernie Perch is willing and able to manufacture patterns for us. Thanks, Bernie.

I have been corrected about my previous post by Bernie Perch. Two of the feet on the base will remain as is, while the others will be trimmed to match them. The feet will then serve to stand the base off no. 11's boiler. This serves two purposes. One is to lift the bell off the boiler and reduce the area of potential corrosion between the base and the boiler, and it will also lift the bell's base up to the depth of the lagging. The fore and aft feet were made longer on purpose, as I mentioned before, so the bell stands solidly on a floor or stand.

They're made up of several pieces. I would guess that the saddle and top are castings and the cylindrical part was rolled...but I suppose they could have been castings as well. Hard to tell even from photos. Here's a frame taken by Gus Pratt from his 16mm footage.

The steam dome is generally formed over a die and them riveted to the boiler shell. The top of the steam dome (the dome cap) is bolted down. It's necessary to give access to the throttle valve inside. The sand dome is a rolled tube fitted to a base that will sit atop the boiler. The top of this base is usually an inverted V to provide gravity feed to the sand tubes. The rounded top is a formed piece. Fancy fluted domes sometimes seen on old-time locomotives are a series of rings fitted over the tube.